• The US Department of Justice accused KuCoin founders of failing to maintain an Anti-Money Laundering program.
• The founders were accused of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
• Despite concerns, KuCoin was deemed "fine" by CryptoQuant's CEO.

Recent reports on a specific platform caused concern for KuCoin users as the US Department of Justice alleged that its founders, Chung Gan and Ke Tang, did not uphold an Anti-Money Laundering program at the exchange. In their official announcement, the DoD stated that the Southern District of New York’s US Attorney and Homeland Security Investigations' Acting Special Agent revealed an indictment against the exchange. The founders were accused of conspiring to conduct business as an unlicensed money transmitter and violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to establish an adequate AML program.

CryptoQuant's CEO, Ki Young Ju, reassured users that KuCoin is in good shape based on on-chain data, indicating that the surge in BTC and ETH withdrawals was primarily driven by retail users and had minimal impact on overall reserves. He compared KuCoin's organic reserves to the not-so-transparent reserves of FTX, showing no signs of mingling customer funds.

KuCoin's CEO acknowledged that the challenges faced by the exchange were common in the industry’s growth stage, including regulatory hurdles. Despite this, the exchange assured that user assets were secure and that they were cooperating with legal teams to address the situation and abide by various countries' laws and regulations.

Regulatory uncertainties are part of the crypto sector's landscape, but steps are being taken towards enhanced compliance. For instance, the EU's recent Anti-Money Laundering Regulation decisions are set to strengthen the industry, even though they were initially misunderstood.